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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 58m

...though they are sometimes what you imagine them to be (enclaves of reactionary opinion-formation and social self-segregation) that is not all they are or even what they mostly are (at least in my experience and knowledge).

I'll leave it at that. Happy to discuss.

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1h

... the resources for that kind of deliberation can be developed (e.g. a well-articulated understanding of the intellectual and societal resources of particular traditions) is a key way of fostering that kind of deliberation.

It's also because i grew up in private (religious) schools and...

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1h

Some of my political theory work on pluralism and deliberative democracy argues that having (and even supporting) "intramural deliberation" within distinct communities (eg. religious communities) is on balance a good thing for a pluralistic democracy. Having educational institutions in which ...

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1h

I'm not going to make this a major theme of this feed, but I am less persuaded than a lot of you are that defunding private schools is a progressive step. Partly that's because I grew up in private schools and have a strong sense of their potential benefits, not only to their students but to society

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Reposted by Michael DeMoor

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 10h

How sure are we all that provincial $ clawed back from private schools would be lavished on public ones?

I’m not 100% sure that’s how this would go. But I appreciate your faith in the good faith of the government.

Luke Fevin @according2luke.bsky.social · 10h

"If high school chemistry teacher Taylor gets her wish, Albertans will vote in referendum on whether to end public funding for schools.

"...highest rate of funding for private schools in a province where we have the lowest rate of funding for public schools,"

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Alberta teacher prompts petition on province's private school funding | CBC News

If high school chemistry teacher Alicia Taylor gets her wish, Albertans will vote in a referendum on whether to end public funding for independent schools.

www.cbc.ca

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 6h

Yeah. F—k them bigots, amiright? Because that’s 100% the only reason anyone would pursue private schooling for their kids.

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 10h

How sure are we all that provincial $ clawed back from private schools would be lavished on public ones?

I’m not 100% sure that’s how this would go. But I appreciate your faith in the good faith of the government.

Luke Fevin @according2luke.bsky.social · 10h

"If high school chemistry teacher Taylor gets her wish, Albertans will vote in referendum on whether to end public funding for schools.

"...highest rate of funding for private schools in a province where we have the lowest rate of funding for public schools,"

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Alberta teacher prompts petition on province's private school funding | CBC News

If high school chemistry teacher Alicia Taylor gets her wish, Albertans will vote in a referendum on whether to end public funding for independent schools.

www.cbc.ca

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 13h

It’s tough. 90% of mine are in boxes while I await a new office large enough to accommodate most of them. I seriously feel dumber not having them around me. I probably am.

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 19h

It's a little rich for someone who has insisted on asserting Alberta's "sovereignty within a united canada" to object to other provinces asserting the same. Federation is hard, but it's made the harder by insisting on inconsistencies.

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

We retain a belief in progress after we've lost our faith in it.

(sorry, just refining my take on this in case i decide to come back and write this up or something).

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

But there is (or once was) something we could do about that unaccountable power. Our fatalism about the forward march of technological progress was/is part of what resigned us to the fate of being in the hands of these people.

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Certainly the unaccountable power of the companies that build and seek to profit from these things is part of that sense of "inevitability" that we feel - it's going to happen partly because they want it to happen and there's nothing we can do about it.

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Reposted by Michael DeMoor

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Our belief in inevitable progress has become uncoupled from the belief that progress is good. And yet we still believe in its inevitability.

That's so dark, folks. So dark.

Where's George Grant when you need him?

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

We blundered into a lot of problems because we were so impressed by the potential upsides of something that we didn't pay enough attention to the perils.

But that's not the case here. The perils are so obvious and the upsides so minuscule.

We are doing this because it feels inevitable. That's it.

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 1d

The Sora AI disinfo nightmare is here

For more like this:
tiktok.com/@drewharwell
instagram.com/bydrewharwell

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Hmmm. I’ve never tried minis. Part of the genius of the triscuit is the way one covers the tongue to absorb the salt and feel the texture before you crunch it. Can a mini do the same?

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Time for cracker discourse.

This is the best cracker. But it’s too good to buy regularly. It’s the champagne of crackers. Special occasions only (this time @nyhofs.bsky.social ‘s birthday picnic dinner at Beaverhill Bird Observatory).

#birds #crackers

Woman in a brown sweater in a field of high grass under a blue sky

Thousands of snow geese in a distant prairie lake.

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Brilliant! Congratulations!

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

a woman with long blonde hair is smiling and wearing a white jacket and a pink shirt .

ALT: a woman with long blonde hair is smiling and wearing a white jacket and a pink shirt .

media.tenor.com

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Yup

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

I get why a lot of people who are drawn to him for one thing (e.g., critique of technology; defense of canadian nationalism, etc) find themselves confounded by the other things about him. I certainly feel that way about him :)

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Totally. But he was a strange bird, so to speak. A Christian platonist who was also an ambivalent Canadian nationalist, with a basically tragic view of history, and some very untimely opinions (very anti-abortion at a time when R v. Morgentaller was working its way through the courts).

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Got a few here today too. Honestly, i love having kids around; kind of sorry mine are too old to take to class with me anymore (though, goodness knows, they might be taking classes here soon).

Duane Bratt @duanebratt.bsky.social · 1d

School body has gotten younger at MRU. Kids of faculty and students, disrupted by the teachers strike, are on campus today.

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

"I'm no [regalia] critic, but i know what I hate. And I don't hate this."

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Our belief in inevitable progress has become uncoupled from the belief that progress is good. And yet we still believe in its inevitability.

That's so dark, folks. So dark.

Where's George Grant when you need him?

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

We blundered into a lot of problems because we were so impressed by the potential upsides of something that we didn't pay enough attention to the perils.

But that's not the case here. The perils are so obvious and the upsides so minuscule.

We are doing this because it feels inevitable. That's it.

Drew Harwell @drewharwell.com · 1d

The Sora AI disinfo nightmare is here

For more like this:
tiktok.com/@drewharwell
instagram.com/bydrewharwell

7 2 11

Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

And did it get that way because we all (or mostly) believed that its benefits would outweigh its costs? Or because we didn't think about the costs? I don't think so.

Our belief in progress has become uncoupled from the believe that progress is good. And yet we still believe in its inevitability.

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Michael DeMoor @michaeldemoor.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe at least this is an occasion to return throughtfully to George P Grant's famous observation that what is necessary may not necessarily be good.

But that should also make us wonder that whether it's really necessary.

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